Press Release

Congressman J. Randy Forbes (VA-04), Chairman of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, held a hearing today to assess the current readiness posture of the United States Navy and explore how to best address shortfalls in maintenance and equipment operability.

Key statistics discussed in today's hearing included (click graphic to see full chart):

In the last four years inspection failures for Navy ships have nearly tripled.Currently, 1 in 5 ships inspected is either unsatisfactory or unfit for combat. Since 2007 inspection failure rates have risen from roughly 8% to 24%. Yet, this year alone, the Navy faces a $367 million funding shortfall for ship maintenance.

On average, Navy deployed ships are forced to spend nearly 40% of their time with at least one major equipment or systems failure.Essential equipment or systems on Navy ships could include anti-air defenses, radar, satellite communications, or engines. Almost 40% of the time, deployed ships have at least one essential piece of equipment that has failed and prevents them from meeting a primary mission.

Over one-half of our currently deployed aircraft are not combat ready.Fifty-five percent of deployed Navy and Marine Corps aircraft are not fully mission capable. For every two aircraft sent on deployment, one of them cannot perform a critical mission for which it was deployed . Despite this, the Navy faces a nearly $100 million funding shortfall for aviation maintenance and logistics this year alone.